In this April 17, 2017, file photo, "Infowars" host Alex Jones arrives at the Travis County Courthouse in Austin, Texas. Facebook Monday announced it was removing four pages run by Jones for violating the social media company's community standards. (Tamir Kalifa / AP)

In a swift movement that will sharply impact his reach, media giants including Facebook, Apple and YouTube shut down pages Monday associated with Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist who has repeatedly claimed that the deadly mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax.

Jones has long spread a message that the deadly Newtown shooting never happened and those impacted were merely “crisis actors.” Families of the victims, now suing Jones and his media company, contend his message has led to a constant stream of threats.

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Neil Heslin, whose son, Jesse Lewis, was killed in the shooting and who has openly challenged Jones, welcomed the efforts by the companies.

“I think it’s due time that they’ve come to take action against propaganda that’s peddled by Alex Jones, and others,” Heslin said Monday. “I hope they take action against anyone [who does this]. It’s bullying, it’s harassment. It’s something that should not be tolerated and it has been.”

Heslin has filed a lawsuit against Jones and his company, Infowars, in Texas. Another group of families has filed a separate suit in Connecticut. Their attorney welcomed the actions by the company, but said Jones has already made an impact.

“News outlets and social media platforms are finally waking up to the critical difference between those who foster a marketplace of freely exchanged ideas and those that peddle false facts to make money off the suffering of others. Unfortunately, for many of the Sandy Hook families, the damage has already been done,” said attorney Josh Koskoff, who is representing the families in the Connecticut defamation suit.

At least one relative of a victim took to social media to address the news that Alex Jones’ pages were being shuttered. In a tweet, Erica Lafferty, daughter of Sandy Hook Elementary School Principal Dawn Hochsprung and among those suing Jones, said “Sorry, @RealAlexJones - looks like I’m not the only one who is sick of your [expletive].”

Facebook announced early Monday that they had removed four pages associated with Jones for violating the company’s community standards. The company first removed four videos from four Facebook pages after receiving reports that hate speech and bullying policies were violated. They also placed a temporary ban on postings to Jones’ personal page.

“Since then, more content from the same pages has been reported to us — upon review, we have taken it down for glorifying violence, which violates our graphic violence policy, and using dehumanizing language to describe people who are transgender, Muslims and immigrants, which violates our hate speech policies,” Facebook said of the pages associated with Jones.

Facebook, which is aiming to address the issue of fake news spreading across its platform, said the violations levied against Jones were not about the veracity of the content.

On Monday, Buzzfeed reported that Apple had removed all but one of the podcasts associated with Infowars. Other platforms, including the streaming service Spotify, took similar actions in previous weeks.

“Apple does not tolerate hate speech, and we have clear guidelines that creators and developers must follow to ensure we provide a safe environment for all of our users,” an Apple spokesman told Buzzfeed.

The moves could impact how Jones’ message reaches people given his media company largely operates online. Before his pages were shuttered, they boasted hundreds of thousands of loyal followers.

YouTube was the latest media company to block out Jones, shutting down his page Monday. In a short message on the page, Youtube said: “This account has been terminated for violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines.”

Jones has faced intense scrutiny for a host of opinions, including his stance on the Sandy Hook massacre.